Look After You
by Manquer Avril
Summary: Time shows no mercy, its victims are simply left behind in the dust to catch up." highly anticipated sequel to the hit, Once In a Lifetime. Please r&r, enjoy!
1. The Memorial

Note-yeah I know it's been so long! Well I did promise a sequel to once in a lifetime. So here it is. Written in Gabriella's point of view again though. I like writing from her perspective most. So anyways, here goes. I hope you like it. I'm a bit nervous about it myself..

--

Gabriella's long dark locks were lifted slightly by the wind that happened to be passing by. The petite brunette looked down at her hand, which was intertwined into that of another hand, Troy's. She looked up to search his face and then was gazing into his eyes.

"You ready?" Troy whispered. Gabriella nodded. She then turned the other direction, in Kelsey's direction. The pianist started to play her chords of the slow song.

Troy held his microphone up and began. "If I don't say this now, I will surely break. As I'm leaving the one I want to take." Troy then gave Gabriella's hand a squeeze. She took a breath and then began to cut through the cool night with her soft, high notes.

"Forgive the urgency, but hurry up and wait. My heart has started to separate."

The couple then took a step forward and joined in song together. The power of their voices caught the attention of the many people whom were at the memorial.

The pair finished the song and then took a bow as the crowd burst into applause. Gabriella smiled weakly and Troy turned to make sure she was alright. Gabi was so proud, that she hadn't embarrassed herself by passing out or anything. The doctors had had their doubts but she was fine! Troy held the mic up again and started to talk.

"I'm so glad that all of you were able to make it here tonight. It's been one full month since we've seen Lacy smile, since she laughed, since we saw our friend. But the thing is, she hasn't really left us. Thank you." Gabriella looked up into the cool night air and for a glimpse of a second, there was a star that shot across the sky. Most of the crowd hadn't noticed it, but Gabriella had. Seeing it, she smiled. Thanks Lacy, she thought.

Gabriella and Troy left the platform They walked together towards Troy's car and Troy helped Gabriella up into the passenger seat. Then he took his seat at the wheel. Gabriella knew exactly where they were going.

The headlights of the black car shined brightly on the dark road. The pavement was still a little bit slick from the rain earlier that day. Within ten minutes they had wound into the local hospital and found a parking spot. Then the two joined hands again and walked into the lobby. The nurse recognized them immediately and sent them back to the room that they were looking for.

Gabriella was walking quickly but she could still barely keep up with the rapid walk that Troy was paced at. She began to find it harder to breath and then Troy slowed down. "Sorry Gabi!" A look of urgency caught his eyes but she waved him off.

" No big deal. C'mon. We've gotta go see him. Visiting hours end real soon anyway." Gabriella knew that Troy was just worried about her but it seemed like her did that too much. Well, sure, she certainly gave him plenty of reason to worry. Since her diagnosis of cancer earlier that year, and what with all the side effects she'd experienced from the ALL, she had been through quite a bit. But she tried to look on the more positive side and not give people reason to worry to begin with. Oh yes, and the pitying. That really had to stop. She hadn't exactly chosen to get cancer or anything in the first place, but people feeling bad for her really only made it worse.

She was deep in thought and had barely realized it when they came to a stop. Then she knew that they had arrived at his room. The intensive care unit. It had been about a month since he had been here. She had hoped that he would be able to get out of his coma earlier. But there was time. Who knew when he would pull out? See, for Gabriella, it wasn't a question of whether he'd come out of it, more like, when he would. Because it had to happen. It just had to.

Gabrielle reached down to touch the pale, cold hand of one of her best friends. Her lips parted and she spoke, very softly. "Hey, Ryan." She brushed a piece of her hair back, behind an ear, and she felt a weak smile coming on. "Hurry up and get better. You missed Lacy's one month memorial. We all miss her so much."

It had been a full month since Ryan, whom had been in love with Lacy, had attempted to kill himself by overdosing, so that he too could possibly join her. However, he had not fully succeeded. So now he was stuck between the stages of life and death: a coma. It was a terrible thing to see, that he struggled so. It was like he couldn't fully be in one world with his friends on Earth, or up among the starts with the love of his life, Lacy. Gabriella just wanted her Ryan back. The Ryan whom she knew so well. And when he came back she wanted him to find love again. Life must continue, after all. Time doesn't pause for mourning, or pity, or grief. It drags by but really, it continues and people have to learn to move on with it. Because the way that Gabi looked at it, you couldn't stay in this state forever. Or else one day death, too, will catch up to you and take you by surprise. Not even death, but other things. Life was about living, it can't just stop for you to take a time out.

"Ready to go?" Troy asked Gabriella and she nodded. They laced their hands together once again and exited the hospital just as visiting hours ended. How she wished so dearly for Ryan to come to once again. There's always tomorrow. Who knows what could happen in a day?


	2. The Call

Note- I'm guessing that the readers who had been reading Once in a Lifetime just aren't around so much or haven't noticed there's a sequel. I didn't get much feedback from the first chapter so I'm thinking of just not completing this story. I suppose I'll give it another chapter or two but compared to the big hit that the first one was I was kind of expecting a bit more. But thank you if you did review! And if you didn't then please do review, I really appreciate it wholeheartedly! Thank you very much!

Gabriella found Sharpay in the hallways at East High, standing by her locker. She noticed that the blonde wasn't fixing her hair or reapplying lip gloss. In fact, she ignored the mirror in her locker, which before she had gotten so much use out of examining herself constantly.

Perhaps Sharpay had been hit the hardest by the downfall of Ryan. It was so tough, he was her only sibling, and after all, she had known him since she was born.

"Hey." Gabriella wore a small smile as she leaned against the locker next to Sharpay's. The blonde sighed, closing her own locker, and then rested her back against it, throwing her head back. She closed her eyes and Gabi watched her intently. She was so…different. It was something that she couldn't just buy back with money. Maybe that was what really bothered her. That she was helpless, she couldn't do something to change anything. Gabi felt that way too. Then again, she felt helpless about quite a few things. One of them being her cancer. And of course, now that she was on the subject, she just remembered that she had only a day left of school before another wave of chemo started. Gabriella ran her fingers through her hair-well, fake hair. Unfortunately, one of her symptoms from the treatment was hair loss. It was something that she had dreaded greatly but could not be avoided. Either that or…she didn't even want to think about it.

She turned to Sharpay again , whose chocolate eyes then opened again. She too smile softly towards Gabriella and then readjusted her shoulder Prada bag. "What's up?"

"Oh nothing much," Gabi spoke casually, trying not to think about the so many other things that were all in her mind, jumbling together.

"Did ya see him last night?" Sharpay spoke even softer, but did try to maintain that same casual tone. She could've been talking about anything else, not her suicidal brother who had been in a coma for about month. It was so terrible, everything was. But, time would go on without them. Time shows no mercy, its victims are simply left behind in the dust to catch up. Gabriella needed to move on, even though she wanted to keep her past a big part of her, the future was what she was to be. And she couldn't forget that.

"Yeah. I think he's gonna come around soon. I just have this feeling." Gabriella wasn't sure if her feeling was actually there because it was or because she wanted it to be there.

"I know. He will, don't even worry," Sharpay spoke nervously. Gabi could just imagine what she was thinking. Was she questioning whether or not Ryan was going to pull through? She sure hoped not. He had to. He just had to. Losing one best friend in a month was more than enough. Gabi couldn't even handle that much. She felt like there was a part of Ryan, in his state now, that really wasn't there. So technically, she had lost him, a part of him. But not the whole thing. For that she was lucky, and she had to keep praying, keep hoping, that he would come through for them.

Gabriella's day went by very slowly. She had a lot on her mind. Life had had so many downfalls recently. She had to have so much pity for herself sitting on her shoulders. She tried to tell herself it could be worse. She wouldn't even know what to do with herself if it wasn't for Troy. She tried to put herself in Ryan's shoes. Would she have tried to kill herself, too? What if she died, and Toy decided to take that path of action? Then she put it out of her mind. She didn't even want to think about it. IT wouldn't happen, it couldn't. She would keep fighting. That was a promise she had made to Lacy anyway. She was not going to die. Not from cancer. She would die another day, a long time from now.

Gabi's day finally ended and she met Troy in the parking lot. He drove her home and then they arrived at her house. She kissed him goodbye, not wanting to leave. Her hand left his and she slowly walked back to her house. That's when the phone rang. There was a call.

Ms. Montez had the phone in her hand. Gabi couldn't make out what it was about. Then her Mom said, "Right, I understand, Dr. Calder." Dr. Calder. That was the name of Ryan's doctor. She put the pieces together. There must have been a drastic change in Ryan's condition. She crossed her fingers, hoping for the best, and then took the phone from her mother's hand, nervously.

"Hello?" Gabriella said, shakily.

"Hi Gabriella. This is Dr. Calder. We have some news about your friend Ryan."


End file.
